Josh Hunter

Husband @Mary_Beth_Ellis 😍, Citation 525/Hawker 800 freelance pilot 🛩, lead instructor @flyQueenCity, member @theLCMS ✝️ @CivilAirPatrol 🇺🇸, fan @IMSA 🚗💨

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@BengalsCaptain Michael is fantastic!

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@Mary_Beth_Ellis always hits homers over on @redlegnation. We went to two games this year and the @Reds won both times, but I’m glad both occasions were on someone else’s dime because we already shelled out for RedsTV and we got… this.

[Mary Beth Ellis @Mary_Beth_Ellis]

It's not your fault.

You shouldn't have to try.

It's not you. It's not. It's them. It's the Reds.

Because I am an English major, and also because of our bullpen, I was in a yoga class this past week. The Reds season was still in existence then. It was a worse time.

I’m pretty sure the instructor isn’t a Reds fan, or a baseball fan, or any kind of sports fan, really. She is the type of person who walks to the strip of grass between a gas station parking lot and the road to put her hands on the grass because “I felt anxiety and needed to ground myself to the Earth.”

I know this because she announced it. She’s that type of person, too. I love her. She has ported in from 1968, clutching a bundle of sage and not particularly caring if you’ve noticed or not.

But it seemed as if she was at least aware of the existence of the Reds, because she also said “Observation is unhappiness.” And then “Pain is a signal that something is wrong.”

This came amidst reaction to the Cincinnati Reds’ statement that, due to the disappointing results of this season, president Nick Krall, GM Brad Meader, Phil Castellini, Bob Castellini, and that one beer guy who’s a little too committed to foam are all returning next year. You will take your losing, and you will like it.

This isn’t as bad as it initially sounds, however, because the Reds have a Super Secret Plan to turn it all around. “Nick and Brad will continue leading our baseball operations,” the announcement said, “and they are in the process of auditing every aspect of our player development system so they can make the decisions that will yield better results.”

This is a wise tactic. Empowering people who can’t or won’t do their jobs to can’t or not do their jobs even harder typically yields vast improvement.

This information bounced right on off my Reds-hardened heart, but what gave me sad pause was the aftermath. Comment upon comment, post upon post, from lifelong Reds fans and season ticket holders individually raising the white flag on scraping together affection for this ballclub in its present state:

“I’m 35 years old and I’ve been a Reds fan my whole life and…”

“I stuck with them through the ’84 season but…”

“I was looking forward to bringing my newborn son to the games…”

“I’ve tried.”

“We’ve tried.”

“I’m done trying."

You should not have to try to love and enjoy your team.

It’s not a marriage, much as this might feel like one, since innocent children are involved. It’s not a job, much as it also might feel like one, because watching this team is work. But it is a relationship, one which is supposed to result in enjoyment.

Have the 2026 Reds resulted in enjoyment for you?

The concept of “I’ve tried” to enjoy watching a sport that’s supposed to serve as a distraction and balm from daily labors, a source of tightening the bonds of family and friendship, indicates something deeply wrong in the Reds’ relationship with the city. It’s not us.

I don’t care what Phil says. It is not you. It’s them.

Pain is a signal that something is wrong.

I honestly don’t know how Mets fans continue to exist year to year. I suppose it’s an enduring matter of fulfilled expectations. But Rockies fans at least get to go outside into some of the best summer weather into the world. You cannot say that about Queens.

And you also can’t say that nothing ever changes in Denver; every few decades or so, the elevation of the stadium changes as it is remeasured by the National Geodetic Survey, rendering the purple seats marking the mile-high line incorrect.

Well– the elevation shifts, but the seats never have, which should tell you something Reds-like, and this year the Rockies finished 58-104, an almost-there 41 games out of first place.

Feel better? You shouldn’t. The presence of another team out-sucking yours does not negate the origin of the initial suck.

Observation is unhappiness.

And “I’ve tried” indicates a sense of fealty, obligation– the presence of duty. To the Reds. Who finished the year having walked in a run twenty-six times this season, the most in the entirety of Major League Baseball.

It’s true that a relationship– and this is a relationship, transactional as it might be on at least some level– involves investment on both sides. If the Reds do well and perform positive community outreach, they deserve our attention and support. You don’t have to, as a human being, give it.

However, doing so feels like mustering enthusiasm for colonoscopy prep.

But at this point it’s obvious that, despite players’ efforts, this front office, having made its TV money and collected its shared revenue payout, is content to watch the bullpen compile a 4.68 ERA.

And the Reds, as professional sport– as, at the bottom, entertainment– bear the burden of keeping us in the seats. Not via bobbleheads. Not by tacking a D-list music act on the end of yet another loss.

No fanbase has the right to a winning team. The Constitution does not lie writhing on the ground because the Reds finished 27th in the whole league, runs-wise.

But you shouldn’t have to try.

(For the most recent version of this column, and to join others in the conversation happening at its home, click the link in the first comment)

[Scott Bateman MBE @scottiebateman]

In the past few years Boeing have taken hits from all quarters. But no matter what you think, this is an astonishing image of a @flydubai aircraft that went well beyond its design limits (30,000 Ft per minute descent rate was reported, a normal rate is about 1500 ft per minute) and held together. That’s robust aviation engineering that Joe Sutter would have been very proud of, and Boeing should be too. Bravo to those off duty pilots who saved the day and landed the aircraft safely in Saudi Arabia.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

Broadcast News

There’s something about Nebraska farmland that makes me want to stand up straight. Not sure what it is, but every time I pass through this part of the country I find myself trying to stretch my body into the sprawling landscape, and wind up looking vaguely ridiculous. In spite of all the attached images, I wasn’t in Omaha last month to be photographed – at least, not primarily. I was there as a guest of @WellsFargo, who continues to spread their money around America like a farmer, broadcasting seed into the tilth of a plowed field.

Did you know that “broadcasting” was a farming term, long before it became the name of my chosen industry? It’s true. Broadcasting was first used to describe a method of distributing seeds that don’t need to be buried deeply, like cover crops, alfalfa, and clover. It allows allows a grower to cover a massive amount of acreage much faster than you could with a precision seed drill. The drawback, is that seeds which are “broadcast” simply land on top of the dirt. Because they lack good seed-to-soil contact and are exposed to the open air, they’re vulnerable to being eaten by birds, blown away by the wind, or drying out before they can germinate. To fix this, farmers will usually follow a broadcast seeder with a light harrow or roller to gently press the seeds into the soil.

It occurs to me that my roll in Wells Fargo’s current campaign is akin to that of a seed drill. I’ve been invited to tag along in order to make sure the seeds that Wells Fargo has spread throughout Pennsylvania, Texas, Alaska, North Carolina, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, have a better chance of taking root in the fickle field of public awareness, where every crop is competing for attention, and every farmer tills from dawn to dusk. Toward that end, I want to tell you about Metro Community College here in Omaha, and their partnership with a local charity called HomeWoven.

In short, students enrolled in the Construction and Building Science program at MCC are getting hands-on, real-world experience through structured internship programs managed by a local non-profit called HomeWoven. I’ve met these students, and they’re awesome. Currently, they’re applying their classroom training directly to local construction projects, physically building affordable homes in South Omaha. While HomeWoven addresses neighborhood housing stability, MCC fulfills the essential demand by supplying the skilled workforce required to execute each project. My job was to once again shake hands with the local politicians, (Senator Ricketts, in this case) meet the key people involved, talk to the local media about the importance of reinvigorating the skilled trades, and present a large check on behalf of Wells Fargo - in this case, a $1.25 million investment for a local solution that’s actually working. Pretty great gig.

Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be today, but for a few great teachers at Essex Community College way back in 1980. They straightened me out, showed me a way forward, and gave me the confidence to try things I never imagined I might be good at. MCC is doing the same thing for a lot of kids entering the skilled trades, and their partnership with HomeWoven is working. Lots of families who could otherwise never afford a new home, are now in one, thanks to a construction program at a local community college, a local non-profit that’s connecting the dots, and a big national bank that’s investing in the towns where they do business.

Seems to me, that’s a story worth broadcasting, and a seed worth drilling down on...

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@MCCCANM When I was at my airline, I had a similar experience, this brand-new kid with 1500.1 hrs sat down on Day 1, Leg 1 and called himself “a captain in the right seat.” We were both Riddle grads so perhaps he thought I’d be cool with such foolishness. I had him pulled off the trip.

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@ArtButSports @Mary_Beth_Ellis @Real10jayy__ @Bengals @whitneymuseum

[Reds Daily @RedsDaily4]

Hey, Reds.

Hire Joey Votto as GM, please.

I’ve heard enough.

Smart baseball mind.

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

Important milestone in my aviation career today: I heard @Nomadic_OMD on the radio! OMD286 was on the same Indy Center freq as me near Dayton, OH. I could only listen in awe and wonder at my good fortune. 😂

[Col. Joseph Lee Burrow @ColJoeBurrow]

Father-
Now i have a defense.
-Joe

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@pdxprisoner @SteveNomadic Both can be true at the same time. Why do you think it’s an either/or?

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@benny55253 @SteveNomadic This is why I can’t stand Twitter. Yes, Twitter.

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@KenPleasants @SteveNomadic Ken, in what world do you live that makes you feel you have to ask that question? 👎🤦‍♂️

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

...July '24, & today is my first time going int'l in the C-525, & then my "Canada first solo" doing a domestic solo flight within Canada, as I dropped off my passengers & repositioned to @flyyhm, a new airport for me. My Canadian grandfather would be proud! 🛩️ 🇨🇦

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

I flew a @Cessna CJ into @TorontoPearson today for two more firsts that YYZ holds w/me. It was where I flew a @piedmontair @embraer 145 in May '18 for my first int'l flight as a pilot, it's where I first flew a @TextronAviation Hawker 750 (and first C-registered aircraft) in...

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@LucciAntonini @OHIOCFI Witnesses: the whole country. 🤦‍♂️🏈

[ANTIFAldo @ANTIFAldo]

Rushing the field after beating Western Michigan is worse than losing

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@TheeBeesKnow @BuzzPatterson @NCAA @WNBA @grok The whole point of this game, and other similar matchups, is the small school gets paid a lot of money to come in and get the snot kicked out of them as a “pre-season” game for the big school, so no, there is no way this caused financial damage to @WMU_Football.

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@carmelHawker Cool. I flew out of TYQ in a @Cirrus_Aircraft back in ‘14-‘15. Went 121 until 🦠, then started flying a Hawker here at home. I’ve been freelance on them for over four years now.

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@carmelHawker Do you fly a Hawker now?

[Josh Hunter @InstructorJosh]

@jbransonx I’d love to post more but the incessant blowback to anything other than the color of the sky simply isn’t worth my time and energy. I’ve been asked to do YouTube, and I’d probably get quite a following, but again, not worth the headache. 😢